Posted on 08/30/2022 8:16:27 PM PDT by Kazan
Do you want a recipe for disaster? Make sure you subordinate military strategy and tactics to political considerations. That is what happened to Ukraine in its long awaited counter offensive against Russian held Kherson in south Ukraine, which was launched on Sunday. The attack occurred at several points along the Kherson front. Here is a summary of the activity (note–AFU refers to Armed Forces of Ukraine, AFRF is the acronym for Armed Forces of the Russian Federation):
Videos at link
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Ukraine only managed to capture Sukhoy Stavok, a small village with no strategic importance. The Ukrainian operation, however, proved very costly to Ukraine, which lost more than 1200 soldiers and almost 50 tanks. The tanks and tank crews are not easily nor quickly replaced. This does not even qualify as a Pyrrhic victory. The Russians still hold the territory.
So why now? Why did Ukraine launch the attacks without adequate support of close air support and artillery? Ukraine was coerced. Ukraine’s President Zelenski was “under pressure” to launch the counteroffensive, according to the New York Times:
As the bloody artillery battle in Ukraine’s east settles into a stalemate, the war appears now to be a waiting game for a long-promised Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The timing for any move to break the deadlock has emerged as a pivotal strategic decision for Ukraine’s government.
…
The initial target of any counterattack is widely assumed to be Russian positions on the western bank of the Dnipro River. Move too soon, though, and the Ukrainian army may prove unready and insufficiently armed to ensure victory, military analysts say. Wait too long, and political backing in Europe may waver as energy prices soar.
Political pressure is mounting for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to make a move even as it remains unclear whether his military has amassed the necessary weaponry and manpower.
“The very difficult state of our economy, the constant risks of air and missile attacks and the general fatigue of the population from the difficulties of war will work against Ukraine” over time, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former minister of defense, wrote in the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. He said the military should be prepared to advance, rather than defend.
If you think being pressured by the government funding your war is inconsequential, think again. I have witnessed how the United States applies pressure to guys we funded to carry out military operations they were not equipped or qualified to execute. In the fall of 1988 I was the CIA’s Honduran analyst. Nicaraguan Contras were “hidden” in CIA funded bases scattered along Honduras’ southern border with Nicaragua. In October 1988, Congress lifted the prohibition on funding and arming the Contras. The war was back on after a two year hiatus imposed because of the Iran Contra scandal, which became public following Eugene Hasenfus being shot down in October 1986 while trying to deliver air dropped supplies to Contra forces in the Honduran Bocay.
So the funding pipeline was open, the Contras were being armed and we, the analysts, waited for the ensuing battles to begin. But instead of Contra forces ambushing and destroying Nicaraguan military units, the Contras were being chewed to pieces. Why?
That is when I learned that the Contra forces were entering Nicaragua without weapons. One of my buddies who was involved in the logistics effort to supply the Contras tipped me off that the AK-47s the Contras were supposed to carry had not arrived. But, the Chief of the CIA’s Central American Task Force was under pressure from Congress and the White House to show progress. The Contras were refusing to cross the border without weapons and ammunition in hand. The CIA did not have any to give them. What to do?
The perfect bureaucratic solutionn–shutdown the Contra camps in Honduras and stop feeding them until they cross the Nicaraguan border. Bingo! All food supplies were curtailed and the Contras were told they would not receive rations and weapons until they crossed into Nicaragua. As a result, the hungry campesinos, grabbed their back packs and trudged across the border while the CIA Chiefs briefed the politicians downtown that the Contra invasion was underway. Victory!
What do you think happens to a 1000 unarmed guys wearing camo marching along a jungle trail in northern Nicaragua who are considered the enemies of Nicaragua? If you guessed, they are attacked, you are a winner. We, the analysts, were getting intel reports about the major casualties among the infiltrating Contra units and initially concluded that the Contras had no will to fight.
It was only after we learned they had no weapons and were coerced to enter Nicaragua unprepared to fight that we understood the perfidy of the CIA managers at Headquarters in charge of the war in Nicaragua. But there were still some CIA officers who were men of honor. One of the CIA paramilitary officers on the ground in southern Honduras was so outraged by the slaughter of the Contras that he ignored direct commands, grabbed a helicopter, flew into Nicaragua and started picking up wounded Contras and flew them to medical treatment in Honduras. He was fired subsequently for insubordination, but wore his dismissal as a badge of honor. For those of us who knew of his bravery and refusal to play the bureaucratic games, he was and remains a hero.
This is just one example of how politics interferes with sound military strategy and tactics. I am certain there are similar tales from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. It appears that Ukraine was forced into launching ground attacks that could not compel the Russians to retreat. As a result, Ukraine incurred significant casualties and loss of key materiel and Russia remains in control of the territory around Kherson. It appears that the United States is doing to Ukraine what it did to the Contras. God help them.
The puppet nazis in Kiev still have some cards to play on the battlefield and may decide to go for broke.
The last thing you want to be is a soldier in a war which your side is managing primarily as a money-laundering operation.
A real nice move by Zel: by getting a crowd of Ukes leave their fortifications and go on a stupid attack — in many random directions at once — he made their denazification so much simpler.
At least 1200 permanently denazified, and the real number is more likely toward 2500.
Now, can Zel do this every day?
Right now, Ukraine has asked for pro-Ukraine social media to not talk about Kherson - operational security. Most of the information coming out right now is from pro-Russian influencers.
There is a deliberate shortage of information for obvious reasons. No one not involved is going to any solid idea of what is happening for a few more days.
Oh get off it.
It was all for PR, at a heavy cost to manpower and equipment which they can not afford to just be throwing away.
The ZelenskyyIdiot Nazi Regime is coming under increased pressure to do something, no matter the costs to its own country, people, and military, due to the fact that support for Ukraine is waning. ZelenskyyIdiot’s own General Staff was against this failed PR so-called offensive until ZelenskyyIdiot threatened the General Staff with immediate removal.
Yes, the Ukrainians are such Nazis they elected a Jewish president.
Another fascinating analogy
You must be anti Reagan to be a good conservative.
Today you must be anti trump to be a good conservative
A puppet for the US.
The king of the world’s most corrupt government and money laundromat in the world.
A failed comedian with no military experience at all directing a war that his general staff in their infancy knew how to command and execute better than a grown bi-sexual Nazi idiot.
And if your foolish self thinks that a Jew or someone Jewish can’t be a Nazi, you fail at history, utterly.
A puppet for the US.
I don't know what nationality you are, but I am an American citizen so you'll forgive if I don't consider being pro-US to be a bad thing.
And if your foolish self thinks that a Jew or someone Jewish can’t be a Nazi, you fail at history, utterly.
Perhaps then you would care to list all the Jewish members of the Nazi party leadership then.
What’s this got to do with what nationality one is, Nazi supporter?
As an American citizen, you would know that it was the ObamaIdiot Regime that put ZelenskyyIdiot into power via rigged ass elections so as to make easier to turn Ukraine into the hub of international money laundering and corruption. Just ask BidenIdiot and his son, kkthx?!
List Jews, or Jewish members of the Nazi party or who were Nazi supporters? Want me to make your breakfast, do your laundry and make you bed too? Do some damn research yourself, yeah?
Look, its real simple, dink:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Jews+who+were+Nazi+supporters&oq=Jews+who+were+Nazi+supporters&aqs=chrome..69i57.7421j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
‘The Jews Who Fought for Nazi Germany’
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/ellen-feldman-nazi-germany
Again, do your own research to refute someone instead fail resorting to “show me”, kkthx?!
I did not know that about the Contras - thank you for posting this.
I suspect that the failure to arm the Contras was deliberate. Some asshat behind a desk wanted them to die and conceived this ‘brilliant’ plan.
Not True—Ukraine is on the march to total victory! This is Russian Propaganda. It is the Russians who are losing men and running in panic. Villages are falling to Ukraine. Partisan Rangers are blowing up Russian Convoys! What as they take city after city. The war will be over soon. The Russians can lie with the best of them but lies do not win wars. The Invaders are in retreat and falling back in utter confusion. The Wonder weapons have changed the battlefield! No safe havens now! only a swift defeat for Putin! Over in three weeks! Don’t believe lies and rumors.
The plan seems to have been to kill or sterilise all untermenschen - including the Jews, Poles, Russians and other Slavs. The Nazi industrial killing spree started - not with the Jews - but with the disabled.
To our literally eternal shame, we moderns have adopted the same tactics of dehumanisation coupled with state-approved murder. This time against the Unborn.
As an American citizen, you would know that it was the ObamaIdiot Regime that put ZelenskyyIdiot into power via rigged ass elections so as to make easier to turn Ukraine into the hub of international money laundering and corruption. Just ask BidenIdiot and his son, kkthx?!
Obama did not put Zelensky in power. Zelensky was elected in 2019, during Trump's term. Obama left office on January 20, 2017.
List Jews, or Jewish members of the Nazi party or who were Nazi supporters?
That wasn't the question I asked. I asked if any Jews were allowed in the Nazi party leadership. The Nazis were perfectly happy for self-loathing Jews to fight other Jews, but they weren't going to let them into the higher levels of the party.
ZelenskyyIdiot Nazi Regime.
ZelenskyyIdiot Nazi supporting Regime.
And Western/US/EU/UK/Ukrainian media is so hilarious given it is utterly ridden with nothing more than propaganda, especially as it regards how ZelenskyyIdiot Nazi Regime happen to come into power. Bet.
“Right now, Ukraine has asked for pro-Ukraine social media to not talk about Kherson”
_________
Because it is demoralizing, embarrassing and exposing who is running the show and their utter incompetence.
Latest Russia Ministry of Defense update on Ukraine’s “counter offensive.”
The Zelensky regime’s attempt to resume offensive operations in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog and other directions failed.
💥In the course of unsuccessful attacks on the settlements of Arkhangelskoye, Olgino and Ternovye Pody, the enemy suffered significant losses and was driven back by Russian troops. A battalion of the 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was defeated in the area of the settlement of Sukhoi Stavok. Currently, the destruction of its remains is being completed.
◽️To release the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 12 tanks delivered to the Kyiv regime by Poland were transported across the Ingulets River. Some of the tanks were destroyed by the powerful fire impact of the Russian troops. Several tanks in the course of a disorderly withdrawal were blown up in their minefield. Only five Ukrainian tanks were able to break back deep into the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
💥For two days of unsuccessful attacks on the Nikolaevo-Krivoy Rog and other directions, Ukrainian troops lost four combat aircraft: two Su-25s, one Su-24 and one MiG-29. Three Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters were shot down in the air. Russian troops destroyed 63 Ukrainian tanks, 59 infantry fighting vehicles, 48 other armored fighting vehicles, 14 pickup trucks with heavy machine guns and more than 1,700 Ukrainian servicemen.
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